npm-config(1) -- Manage the npm configuration file

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

npm gets its configuration values from 6 sources, in this priority:

Command Line Flags

Putting --foo bar on the command line sets the
foo configuration parameter to "bar". A -- argument tells the cli
parser to stop reading flags. A --flag parameter that is at the end of
the command will be given the value of true.

Environment Variables

Any environment variables that start with npm_config_ will be interpreted
as a configuration parameter. For example, putting npm_config_foo=bar in
your environment will set the foo configuration parameter to bar. Any
environment configurations that are not given a value will be given the value
of true. Config values are case-insensitive, so NPM_CONFIG_FOO=bar will
work the same.

Per-user config file

$HOME/.npmrc (or the userconfig param, if set above)

This file is an ini-file formatted list of key = value parameters.
Environment variables can be replaced using ${VARIABLE_NAME}. For example:

prefix = ${HOME}/.npm-packages

Global config file

$PREFIX/etc/npmrc (or the globalconfig param, if set above):
This file is an ini-file formatted list of key = value parameters.
Environment variables can be replaced as above.

Built-in config file

path/to/npm/itself/npmrc

This is an unchangeable "builtin"
configuration file that npm keeps consistent across updates. Set
fields in here using the ./configure script that comes with npm.
This is primarily for distribution maintainers to override default
configs in a standard and consistent manner.

Default Configs

A set of configuration parameters that are internal to npm, and are
defaults if nothing else is specified.

Sub-commands

Config supports the following sub-commands:

set

npm config set key value

Sets the config key to the value.

If value is omitted, then it sets it to "true".

get

npm config get key

Echo the config value to stdout.

list

npm config list

Show all the config settings.

delete

npm config delete key

Deletes the key from all configuration files.

edit

npm config edit

Opens the config file in an editor. Use the --global flag to edit the
global config.

Shorthands and Other CLI Niceties

The following shorthands are parsed on the command-line:

-v: --version

-h, -?, --help, -H: --usage

-s, --silent: --loglevel silent

-q, --quiet: --loglevel warn

-d: --loglevel info

-dd, --verbose: --loglevel verbose

-ddd: --loglevel silly

-g: --global

-l: --long

-m: --message

-p, --porcelain: --parseable

-reg: --registry

-v: --version

-f: --force

-desc: --description

-S: --save

-D: --save-dev

-O: --save-optional

-B: --save-bundle

-y: --yes

-n: --yes false

ll and la commands: ls --long

If the specified configuration param resolves unambiguously to a known
configuration parameter, then it is expanded to that configuration
parameter. For example:

npm ls --par
# same as:
npm ls --parseable

If multiple single-character shorthands are strung together, and the
resulting combination is unambiguously not some other configuration
param, then it is expanded to its various component pieces. For
example:

Per-Package Config Settings

When running scripts (see npm-scripts(1))
the package.json "config" keys are overwritten in the environment if
there is a config param of <name>[@<version>]:<key>. For example, if
the package.json has this:

bin-links

Set to false to have it not do this. This can be used to work around
the fact that some file systems don't support symlinks, even on
ostensibly Unix systems.

browser

Default: OS X: "open", others: "google-chrome"

Type: String

The browser that is called by the npm docs command to open websites.

ca

Default: The npm CA certificate

Type: String or null

The Certificate Authority signing certificate that is trusted for SSL
connections to the registry.

Set to null to only allow "known" registrars, or to a specific CA cert
to trust only that specific signing authority.

See also the strict-ssl config.

cache

Default: Windows: %APPDATA%\npm-cache, Posix: ~/.npm

Type: path

The location of npm's cache directory. See npm-cache(1)

cache-lock-stale

Default: 60000 (1 minute)

Type: Number

The number of ms before cache folder lockfiles are considered stale.

cache-lock-retries

Default: 10

Type: Number

Number of times to retry to acquire a lock on cache folder lockfiles.

cache-lock-wait

Default: 10000 (10 seconds)

Type: Number

Number of ms to wait for cache lock files to expire.

cache-max

Default: Infinity

Type: Number

The maximum time (in seconds) to keep items in the registry cache before
re-checking against the registry.

Note that no purging is done unless the npm cache clean command is
explicitly used, and that only GET requests use the cache.

cache-min

Default: 10

Type: Number

The minimum time (in seconds) to keep items in the registry cache before
re-checking against the registry.

Note that no purging is done unless the npm cache clean command is
explicitly used, and that only GET requests use the cache.

color

Default: true on Posix, false on Windows

Type: Boolean or "always"

If false, never shows colors. If "always" then always shows colors.
If true, then only prints color codes for tty file descriptors.

coverage

Default: false

Type: Boolean

A flag to tell test-harness to run with their coverage options enabled,
if they respond to the npm_config_coverage environment variable.

depth

Default: Infinity

Type: Number

The depth to go when recursing directories for npm ls and
npm cache ls.

description

Default: true

Type: Boolean

Show the description in npm search

dev

Default: false

Type: Boolean

Install dev-dependencies along with packages.

Note that dev-dependencies are also installed if the npat flag is
set.

editor

Default: EDITOR environment variable if set, or "vi" on Posix,
or "notepad" on Windows.

Type: path

The command to run for npm edit or npm config edit.

engine-strict

Default: false

Type: Boolean

If set to true, then npm will stubbornly refuse to install (or even
consider installing) any package that claims to not be compatible with
the current Node.js version.

force

Default: false

Type: Boolean

Makes various commands more forceful.

lifecycle script failure does not block progress.

publishing clobbers previously published versions.

skips cache when requesting from the registry.

prevents checks against clobbering non-npm files.

fetch-retries

Default: 2

Type: Number

The "retries" config for the retry module to use when fetching
packages from the registry.

fetch-retry-factor

Default: 10

Type: Number

The "factor" config for the retry module to use when fetching
packages.

fetch-retry-mintimeout

Default: 10000 (10 seconds)

Type: Number

The "minTimeout" config for the retry module to use when fetching
packages.

fetch-retry-maxtimeout

Default: 60000 (1 minute)

Type: Number

The "maxTimeout" config for the retry module to use when fetching
packages.

git

Default: "git"

Type: String

The command to use for git commands. If git is installed on the
computer, but is not in the PATH, then set this to the full path to
the git binary.

global

Default: false

Type: Boolean

Operates in "global" mode, so that packages are installed into the
prefix folder instead of the current working directory. See
npm-folders(1) for more on the differences in behavior.

packages are installed into the {prefix}/lib/node_modules folder, instead of the
current working directory.

bin files are linked to {prefix}/bin

man pages are linked to {prefix}/share/man

globalconfig

Default: {prefix}/etc/npmrc

Type: path

The config file to read for global config options.

globalignorefile

Default: {prefix}/etc/npmignore

Type: path

The config file to read for global ignore patterns to apply to all users
and all projects.

If not found, but there is a "gitignore" file in the
same directory, then that will be used instead.

group

Default: GID of the current process

Type: String or Number

The group to use when running package scripts in global mode as the root
user.

https-proxy

Default: the HTTPS_PROXY or https_proxy or HTTP_PROXY or
http_proxy environment variables.

Type: url

A proxy to use for outgoing https requests.

user-agent

Default: node/{process.version} {process.platform} {process.arch}

Type: String

Sets a User-Agent to the request header

ignore

Default: ""

Type: string

A white-space separated list of glob patterns of files to always exclude
from packages when building tarballs.

init-module

Default: ~/.npm-init.js

Type: path

A module that will be loaded by the npm init command. See the
documentation for the
init-package-json module
for more information, or npm-init(1).

init.version

Default: "0.0.0"

Type: semver

The value npm init should use by default for the package version.

init.author.name

Default: ""

Type: String

The value npm init should use by default for the package author's name.

init.author.email

Default: ""

Type: String

The value npm init should use by default for the package author's email.

init.author.url

Default: ""

Type: String

The value npm init should use by default for the package author's homepage.

json

Default: false

Type: Boolean

Whether or not to output JSON data, rather than the normal output.

This feature is currently experimental, and the output data structures
for many commands is either not implemented in JSON yet, or subject to
change. Only the output from npm ls --json is currently valid.

link

Default: false

Type: Boolean

If true, then local installs will link if there is a suitable globally
installed package.

Note that this means that local installs can cause things to be
installed into the global space at the same time. The link is only done
if one of the two conditions are met:

The package is not already installed globally, or

the globally installed version is identical to the version that is
being installed locally.

searchsort

Indication of which field to sort search results by. Prefix with a -
character to indicate reverse sort.

shell

Default: SHELL environment variable, or "bash" on Posix, or "cmd" on
Windows

Type: path

The shell to run for the npm explore command.

sign-git-tag

Default: false

Type: Boolean

If set to true, then the npm version command will tag the version
using -s to add a signature.

Note that git requires you to have set up GPG keys in your git configs
for this to work properly.

strict-ssl

Default: true

Type: Boolean

Whether or not to do SSL key validation when making requests to the
registry via https.

See also the ca config.

tag

Default: latest

Type: String

If you ask npm to install a package and don't tell it a specific version, then
it will install the specified tag.

Also the tag that is added to the package@version specified by the npm
tag command, if no explicit tag is given.

tmp

Default: TMPDIR environment variable, or "/tmp"

Type: path

Where to store temporary files and folders. All temp files are deleted
on success, but left behind on failure for forensic purposes.

unicode

Default: true

Type: Boolean

When set to true, npm uses unicode characters in the tree output. When
false, it uses ascii characters to draw trees.

unsafe-perm

Default: false if running as root, true otherwise

Type: Boolean

Set to true to suppress the UID/GID switching when running package
scripts. If set explicitly to false, then installing as a non-root user
will fail.

usage

Default: false

Type: Boolean

Set to show short usage output (like the -H output)
instead of complete help when doing npm-help(1).

user

Default: "nobody"

Type: String or Number

The UID to set to when running package scripts as root.

username

Default: null

Type: String

The username on the npm registry. Set with npm adduser

userconfig

Default: ~/.npmrc

Type: path

The location of user-level configuration settings.

userignorefile

Default: ~/.npmignore

Type: path

The location of a user-level ignore file to apply to all packages.

If not found, but there is a .gitignore file in the same directory, then
that will be used instead.

umask

Default: 022

Type: Octal numeric string

The "umask" value to use when setting the file creation mode on files
and folders.

Folders and executables are given a mode which is 0777 masked against
this value. Other files are given a mode which is 0666 masked against
this value. Thus, the defaults are 0755 and 0644 respectively.

version

Default: false

Type: boolean

If true, output the npm version and exit successfully.

Only relevant when specified explicitly on the command line.

versions

Default: false

Type: boolean

If true, output the npm version as well as node's process.versions
hash, and exit successfully.

Only relevant when specified explicitly on the command line.

viewer

Default: "man" on Posix, "browser" on Windows

Type: path

The program to use to view help content.

Set to "browser" to view html help content in the default web browser.

yes

Default: null

Type: Boolean or null

If set to null, then prompt the user for responses in some
circumstances.

If set to true, then answer "yes" to any prompt. If set to false
then answer "no" to any prompt.